HERE'S TO ALL THE GAME-CHANGING MOMENTS

HERE'S TO ALL THE GAME-CHANGING MOMENTS

Jay Wood

Speaking with Vernon Reid one on one!

When I was in high school in 1988-89, I became the biggest Living Colour fan ever. I was completely obsessed with them and even wrote a review of their debut album for the school newspaper. No one sounded like them, and Will Calhoun's drumming totally influenced and changed the way I was playing the drums, and Vernon Reid's guitar playing blew me away! I said to my friends at the time, man, "if I could just spend a half an hour in a room talking with Vernon about music one on one, I would die a happy kid". Fast forward to 10 years later, I was in a band called The Kelvins, an all original rock band, and we rehearsed next to Doug Wimbish's (the bass player for Living Colour) apartment in Hartford. He came over one night and started talking to us about the band and our sound. He really was digging it and decided to take us under his wing. This included, getting us into a studio, producing our CD, and last but not least, opening for Living Colour in New Haven CT, Boston MA, and North Hampton MA!!!! My goal was getting closer to being achieved! It was in the middle of all these exciting events that I found out that Living Colour was playing a show in NYC. I was hanging with my friend/bass player of The Kelvins in a restaurant, and said, "Want to see Living Colour tonight in NYC", he said yes, and I called Doug who said that he would put tickets and backstage passes aside for us. Long story short, we took a bus to the city, went to their amazing show, went back stage....and it was their that I hung with and talked music with Vernon Reid for a half hour one on one!! I'll never forget that time and experience, and the best part is all the members of the group were very supportive of us, cool with us, and treated us extremely well, and Vernon was as brilliant as I thought he would be! Game changer for sure!...Thank you Living Colour for being so cool, thank you to The Kelvins for being such great friends, and band, and of course, thank you Vic Firth for this opportunity to relive this great time in my life through writing this!!

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In celebration of Vic Firth Company's 50th anniversary, we've spent an entire year celebrating Game-Changing Moments in drumming -- including yours! To everyone who shared a story with us this year, thank you! Drumming is a shared experience and we are all brothers and sisters! Your stories have inspired us to continue making the best sticks possible and to continue changing the game for drummers everywhere.

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We received thousands of amazing stories this year. Although it was difficult to choose only one story, we're happy to announce that Joe Russomano is our grand prize winner in the Game-Changing Moments contest!